Judgment reserved in Alan Vial and Nikita Burns murder appeals

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

The Court of Appeal reserved judgment on appeals by Alan Vial and Nikita Burns against their convictions for the murder of Robert ‘Robin’ Wilkin. The proceedings were reported on 23 July 2026.

Both had pleaded not guilty to murdering Mr Wilkin in Co Donegal on 25 June 2023. On 6 March 2025, a Central Criminal Court jury found them guilty by a 10-to-two majority. The prosecution had alleged that they were engaged in a joint enterprise to cause him serious injury.

On 7 March 2025, Mr Justice Paul McDermott sentenced each to the mandatory term of life imprisonment. Vial’s sentence was backdated to 14 July 2023 and Burns’s to 29 August 2023, when they first went into custody.

At the appeal hearing, Shane Costelloe, for Vial, argued that the pair should have been tried separately because Burns’s statements to others had prejudiced the jury against his client. He accepted that the trial judge had carefully warned jurors that they could not use one accused’s statements as evidence against the other, but argued that the prejudicial material would have overwhelmed them. Counsel said Vial accepted being present when Mr Wilkin was killed and helping put him over the cliffs, but denied striking him.

Eoin Lawlor, for Burns, argued that her self-incriminating statements were involuntary and should not have been heard by the jury. Bernard Condon, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, argued that there was ample evidence of Vial’s guilt apart from Burns’s statements and that statements to private citizens were admissible.

Judge Patrick McCarthy, sitting with Judge Tara Burns and Judge Charles Meenan, reserved judgment.